Did Early Christians Know the Apostles' Creed?
Early Christian writings point to a shared rule of faith that matches the shape of the Apostles' Creed, especially in baptism and church teaching. Writers like Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen, and Gregory Thaumaturgus speak of a fixed confession handed down in the churches. The exact later creed wording is not as early as the faith itself, but the basic beliefs are early and widely attested.
140 early-church witnesses · 268 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about the Apostles' Creed?
Early Christian writings do not preserve a single document called the Apostles' Creed in the earliest centuries, but they do show a common apostolic rule of faith that later matched the creed’s shape. Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen, and Gregory Thaumaturgus all speak of a fixed church confession or rule of faith, often tied to baptism, apostolic teaching, and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The evidence is strongest for an early shared summary of faith and for baptismal confession, while direct word-for-word matches to the later creed are mostly from later liturgical texts. Some cards are only indirect, especially those about apostles, succession, or general faith, so the picture is broad but not fully uniform in wording. Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Early Christians had a shared rule of faith before the later creed was fixed in its final wording.
- Baptism was tied to a public confession of Father, Son, Holy Spirit, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life.
- Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen, and Gregory Thaumaturgus are major early witnesses.
Questions Answered by the Sources
Did early Christians say the Church received its faith from the apostles?
The sources say the Church received its faith, preaching, and teaching from the apostles and their disciples, and that true churches could trace continuity from apostolic succession. This is the clearest theme in the evidence set.
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book I Direct teaching
1. The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them;
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Tertullian, On the Veiling of Virgins Supporting witness
The rule of faith, indeed, is altogether one, alone immoveable and irreformable;
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Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness
He forbade anyone coming from any heresy to be baptized in the Church. That means he judged the baptism of all heretics to be valid and lawful. And although particular heresies have their own particular baptisms and different sins, by keeping communion with the baptism of them all, he gathered up the sins of them all and piled them into his own bosom. He also ordered that nothing should be changed except what had been handed down. But who is really the innovator? Is it the one who, keeping unity, claims for the one Church the one baptism? Or is it not plainly the one who, forgetting unity, accepts the lies and corruptions of a profane washing? "Let nothing be changed," he says, "let nothing be maintained except what has been handed down." From where does that tradition come? Does it come down from the authority of the Lord and of the Gospel, or does it come from the commands and letters of the apostles? For God bears witness and warns that the things written must be done, saying to Joshua the son of Nun, "This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it" Joshu
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Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Supporting witness
Novatian, with the View of Treating of the Trinity, Sets Forth from the Rule of Faith that We Should First of All Believe in God the Father and Lord Omnipotent, the Absolute Founder of All Things.
Did early Christians use a creed or confession of faith?
Several sources describe a church confession or creed, especially in baptismal or doctrinal settings. These texts confess one God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, forgiveness of sins, resurrection, and eternal life, but the supplied cards do not establish one single fixed wording across all churches.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
And after his renunciation let him in his consociation say: And I associate myself to Christ, and believe, and am baptized into one unbegotten Being, the only true God Almighty, the Father of Christ, the Creator and Maker of all things, from whom are all things;
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
Let, therefore, the candidate for baptism declare thus in his renunciation: —
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
the seal instead of the cross; the ointment is the confirmation of the confession;
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
All we of the faithful, therefore, who are the disciples of Christ, believe His promises.
How did early Christians describe the apostles’ role?
The sources present the apostles as foundational witnesses, teachers, and messengers of Christ. They also show the apostles preaching, bearing testimony, and serving as the basis for the Church’s unity and doctrine.
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Ignatius, Epistle to the Philadelphians (Long Version) Direct teaching
If any one confesses the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and praises the creation, but calls the incarnation merely an appearance, and is ashamed of the passion, such an one has denied the faith, not less than the Jews who killed Christ.
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Alexander of Alexandria, Epistles on the Arian Heresy Direct teaching
12. We believe these things concerning Him, just as the Apostolic Church believes. We believe in one unbegotten Father, who has from no one the cause of His being. He is unchangeable and immutable. He is always the same and admits no increase or decrease. He gave to us the Law, the prophets, and the Gospels. He is Lord of the patriarchs and apostles, and of all the saints. And we believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. He was not begotten from things that are not, but from Him who is the Father. He was not begotten in a bodily manner, by excision or division, as Sabellius and Valentinus thought, but in a certain inexplicable and unspeakable manner, according to the words of the prophet quoted above: "Who shall declare His generation?" Isaiah 53:8. Since no nature that is begotten can investigate His subsistence, just as no one can investigate the Father, because the nature of rational beings cannot receive the knowledge of His divine generation by the Father. But men who are moved by the Spirit of truth have no need to learn these things from me. For the words spoken before by Christ on this very matter are sounding in our ears: "No man knows the Father, sav
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Gregory Thaumaturgus, On the Trinity Supporting witness
...sumption of humanity by the Word, he is an alien from us, and from the ministry of the Catholic and Apostolic Church. This is the perfect, holy, Apostolic faith of the holy God. Praise to the Holy Trinity forever through the ages of the ages. Amen.
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Dionysius of Alexandria, Miscellaneous Fragments Supporting witness
as also, that we ought to keep all the commandments, the conviction of the world, of the devil, of Antichrist, the promise of the Holy Spirit, the adoption of God, the faith required of us in all things, the Father and the Son, named as such everywhere.
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Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness
Novatian, with the View of Treating of the Trinity, Sets Forth from the Rule of Faith that We Should First of All Believe in God the Father and Lord Omnipotent, the Absolute Founder of All Things.
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Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness
This is He who in the apostles gives testimony to Christ;
Did early Christians confess forgiveness of sins and eternal life?
Yes. Cyprian says baptismal questioning included remission of sins and eternal life, and later liturgical texts also keep this shape of confession. This is one of the clearest places where creed language and early church practice meet.
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Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching
...s by saying that Novatian holds the same law that the Catholic Church holds, baptizes with the same creed with which we baptize, knows the same God and Father, the same Christ the Son, and the same Holy Spirit, and that for this reason he may claim the power to baptize, because he seems not to differ from us in the baptismal questioning, let anyone who thinks this can be objected know first of all that there is not one law of the Creed, nor is the same questioning shared by us and by schismatics. For when they say, "Do you believe in the remission of sins and eternal life through the holy Church?" they lie in their questioning, since they do not have the Church. Besides this, by their own voice they themselves confess that remission of sins cannot be given except through the holy Church. And since they do not have this, they show that sins cannot be remitted among them.
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Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Sectional Confession of Faith Supporting witness
and in one holy Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the flesh, and life eternal.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
to believe the resurrection and the judgment, and to expect the retribution;
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Early Liturgies, Divine Liturgy of St. James Supporting witness
I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God: and the rest of the Creed.
Did early Christians connect the faith to the apostles and their teaching?
Yes. Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, and others stress that the church received its faith from the apostles and kept it by succession and public teaching. That makes the creed's apostolic name fit the way early Christians described the faith, even when they did not quote the later creed word for word.
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Direct teaching
The blessed apostles, having established and built up the Church, entrusted the role of the episcopate to Linus. Paul mentions Linus in the Epistles to Timothy. Anacletus succeeded him, and after him, Clement became the bishop, third in line from the apostles. This man, having seen and interacted with the blessed apostles, still had their preaching echoing in his ears and their traditions before his eyes. He was not alone in this, for many others remained who had received instructions from the apostles. During Clement's time, a significant disagreement arose among the brethren in Corinth, and the Church in Rome sent a powerful letter to the Corinthians. This letter exhorted them to peace, renewed their faith, and declared the tradition recently received from the apostles, proclaiming the one omnipotent God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the Creator of man, who caused the deluge, called Abraham, led the people out of Egypt, spoke to Moses, established the law, sent the prophets, and prepared fire for the devil and his angels. From this document, anyone who wishes may learn that He, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, was preached by the Churches and may also understand the apostol
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Tertullian, On Prescription Against Heretics Supporting witness
But if there are any heresies bold enough to place themselves in the middle of the apostolic age, so that they may seem to have been handed down by the apostles because they existed in the time of the apostles, we can say this: Let them bring out the original records of their churches. Let them unfold the list of their bishops, coming down in proper succession from the beginning, in such a way that their first bishop can show that his ordainer and predecessor was one of the apostles or one of the apostolic men, and moreover, a man who remained faithful with the apostles. For this is how the apostolic churches pass down their records. The church of Smyrna records that Polycarp was placed there by John. In the same way, the church of Rome says that Clement was ordained by Peter. In exactly the same way, the other churches also present their own notable men. Since these men were appointed to their places as bishops by apostles, the churches regard them as those who pass on the apostolic seed. Let the heretics invent something similar. After their blasphemy, what is unlawful for them to attempt? But even if they manage to invent such a thing, they will gain nothing by it. For when thei
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Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Direct teaching
so, seeing there are many who think they hold the opinions of Christ, and yet some of these think differently from their predecessors, yet as the teaching of the Church, transmitted in orderly succession from the apostles, and remaining in the Churches to the present day, is still preserved, that alone is to be accepted as truth which differs in no respect from ecclesiastical and apostolic tradition.
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Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Supporting witness
3. Now it ought to be known that the holy apostles, in preaching the faith of Christ, delivered themselves with the utmost clearness on certain points which they believed to be necessary to every one, even to those who seemed somewhat dull in the investigation of divine knowledge;
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Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Supporting witness
...ever proofs they want to take from the Scriptures so that those proofs fit their own ideas. But the apostolic word has already marked out this case beforehand: "If anyone preaches to you any other gospel than what you have received, let him be accursed." Therefore, besides what was once delivered to us by the apostles, a disciple of Christ ought to receive nothing new as doctrine. But so that what I have to say does not become too long, I return directly to the matter before us. This man taught that the law of Moses, to speak briefly, does not come from the good God, but from the prince of evil. He said that it has no kinship with the new law of Christ, but is opposite and hostile to it, the one being the direct enemy of the other. When I heard such an opinion being taught, I repeated to the people that saying from the Gospel in which our Lord Jesus Christ said about Himself, "I have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it." But the man insisted that He did not say this at all. He argued that when we see that Christ actually set aside that same law, we must pay attention above all else to what He actually did. Then he began to quote many passages from the law, and also ma
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Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Supporting witness
...ame to me some days ago and tried to introduce a new kind of knowledge here, different from what is apostolic and ecclesiastical, has also come to you. I gave no place to that person. For when we held a disputation together, he was confuted. I would now like to copy out for your benefit all the arguments I used on that occasion, so that by them you might understand what that man's faith is. But that could be done only if I had leisure at my disposal. So, because of the present urgency, I have thought it necessary to write you a short reply about what you wrote to me concerning the statements advanced by him. I understand, then, that his chief effort was aimed at proving that the law of Moses is not in agreement with the law of Christ. He tried to base this position on the authority of our Scriptures. But on the contrary, we not only established the law of Moses, and all the things written in it, by the same Scripture, but we also proved that the whole Old Testament agrees with the New Testament and is in perfect harmony with it. They truly form one fabric, just as a person may see one and the same robe made of weft and warp together. For the truth is simply this: just as we can
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Early Liturgies, Divine Liturgy of St. Mark Supporting witness
...O lover of mankind, O good Lord: remember in Your goodness and mercy the holy and only Catholic and Apostolic Church throughout the whole world, and all Your people, and all the sheep of this fold. Grant the peace of heaven to the hearts of all of us, and also grant us the peace of this life.
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Supporting witness
and he shall find them agreeable to the doctrine of the apostles, and so to maintain what they used to teach, and were persuaded of, that there is one God, the Maker of all things.
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Supporting witness
But the Church throughout all the world, having its origin firm from the apostles, perseveres in one and the same opinion with regard to God and His Son.
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Ignatius, Epistle to the Philadelphians (Long Version) Supporting witness
My brothers, I am greatly increased in loving you; and rejoicing greatly over you, I seek to secure your safety. Yet it is not I, but the Lord Jesus through me; for whose sake being bound, I fear more, for I am not yet perfect. But your prayer to God shall make me perfect, that I may reach what I have been called to, while I flee to the Gospel as to the flesh of Jesus Christ, and to the apostles as the presbytery of the Church. I also love the prophets as those who announced Christ, and as sharing the same Spirit with the apostles. For just as the false prophets and the false apostles drew to themselves the same wicked, deceitful, and seducing spirit; so also did the prophets and the apostles receive from God, through Jesus Christ, the same Holy Spirit, who is good, sovereign, and true, and the Author of saving knowledge. For there is one God of the Old and New Testament, “one Mediator between God and men,” for the creation of both intelligent and sensitive beings, and to provide beneficial and suitable guidance over them. There is also one Comforter, who showed His power in Moses, and the prophets, and apostles. All the saints, therefore, were saved by Christ, hoping in Him, and w
Common Questions
Did the early church use the Apostles' Creed?
The early church used a shared rule of faith and baptismal confession that later matched the creed’s main parts, but the exact later wording is seen more clearly in later liturgical texts.
What did early Christians confess in baptism?
They confessed the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, along with forgiveness of sins, the church, resurrection, and eternal life.
Which early writers talk about this creed-like faith?
Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen, and Gregory Thaumaturgus all describe a set apostolic faith or rule of faith.
Source Index for the Apostles' Creed
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 160 ranked source links from 268 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 160 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 140
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
Bible Passages 80 shown of 128
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.